Freedom Is Not the Same as Freedom — Part One — Western & Chinese View
European freedom and Chinese freedom
Introduction
Part One
European freedom and Chinese freedom
Part Two
Buddhist freedom, Indian freedom and Islamic freedom (coming soon)
Social-Cultural Background and Conscious Maturity
Our understanding of words depends, on the one hand, on our social and cultural background and, on the other, on the degree of conscious maturity we have reached.
A European has a different understanding of freedom than a Chinese, a Chinese than an Indian, and so on.
A wise old lady has a different understanding of freedom than a middle-class American teenager, a miner than a millionaire, and so on.
Nevertheless, at the pre-personal and personal levels of consciousness, it is widespread to believe that words have a universal meaning. It is believed that the meaning of a word is the same for everyone. This is part of the inner structure of these levels.
We cannot clearly distinguish between story and reality, so it is logical that a word is seen as a thing and not an abstraction. This is why we go to war because we believe that “our country” or “our freedom” is a thing to be protected. But in reality, “our country” is just a mental projection that does not exist in the real world. The same applies to freedom.
Freedom is an idea, not reality itself. That’s why we have different understandings of freedom in different cultures.
Problems arise when we are confronted with someone who has a different interpretation of freedom. When we are aware, that freedom is a way of thinking about life and not a reality, we are able to accept the “other” freedom and thereby open the channels of communication if no conflict is the result.
In this context, freedom has profound implications, to the extent that we fight wars over different interpretations of freedom. A German Nazi in World War II was convinced that he had to kill the Jews in order to be free. Stalin believed he was bringing the freedom of communism to the world by killing millions of people, and the US invaded Vietnam to fight communism and bring the American kind of freedom.
In the West, we believe that our understanding of freedom is the highest form of freedom. The consequences are devastating and undermine the principles of our democratic understanding of freedom. But that is another article. Here, we will examine the main difference between the major cultures in terms of freedom.
Notice:
What freedom means in Western cultures, in China, in India, in Buddhist countries, and in Islam is a vast subject that cannot even be remotely covered in this article. For this reason, the presentation will be very general and will only describe the main tendencies without going into detail. In Islam, there is a general tendency to understand freedom, but in Senegal, freedom is different from Saudi Arabia, but they have a common basic understanding grounded in Islam. The same is true for other cultures.
European Culture
Let’s start with the European understanding of freedom, which also includes the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The Western understanding of freedom is strongly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, which emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries. The French Revolution and the American War of Independence were the “point of no return” and from then on, individual freedom became the “holy grail”.
The democratic and capitalist traditions of Western culture are inextricably linked to our ideal of individual freedom.
Individual freedom is the center of gravity of Western societies. This perspective emphasizes the right of individuals to make their own decisions, to choose their own path in life, to live where they want, and to express their opinions and beliefs freely.
Political freedom is a central aspect if it does not contradict the social norm, the standardized political narrative and the main interests of governments (see Julian Assange[¹], Edward Snowden[²], Guantánamo[³]).
Economic freedom plays the central role. Money and freedom are seen as twins. Since freedom in Western societies is mainly focused on external and material aspects, it is logical that money is equated with freedom. In Western societies, everything is measured with money, the wealth of a nation is measured with GDP[⁴]. Freedom has become a product in European culture and has lost its spiritual dimension.
The inner aspects of freedom are irrelevant. There is freedom of religion, but only as an external matter. We are free to express our religion, but the inner pursuit of freedom is no longer part of society. Freedom is external and not internal.
China
In China, the focus is less on individual freedom and more on collective freedom. The well-being of the community is more important than the freedom of the individual.
Society is seen as a whole that must be in balance and harmony. The freedom of the individual is secondary and should not be compromised at the expense of this balance.
Social harmony is an essential part of Chinese culture. Therefore, individual freedom must fit into the framework of social responsibility. Kennedy’s famous phrase, *Don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country* resumes this view very well. It is somewhat ironic that a man who stands for individual freedom should sum up the Chinese understanding of freedom.
Western thinking cannot understand the Chinese point of view because we are too attached to the ideal of individual freedom. The Chinese, on the other hand, understand our idea of freedom and probably laugh about it.
The knowledge that life is an interconnected process is deeply rooted in Chinese thinking.
In the West, life is made up of an infinite number of dots that exist independently of each other; in China, life is seen as an organically grown process in which each part plays its role and has its function.
China, together with India, is the oldest existing culture on earth, and even though the Cultural Revolution tried to dismantle all traditions, Confucianism and Taoism are still very much present, emphasizing the whole rather than the parts, the collective rather than the individual.
In the West, we think that China is an authoritarian regime that oppresses its people and that freedom must be like in the West, but the vast majority in China sees it differently. We see China as an emerging country that is now becoming a major player. But the fact is that China has always been a major player for thousands of years, it only had a setback of about 200 years.
We should not make the mistake of thinking that this culture has no idea about freedom and that our culture is superior in terms of freedom.
Freedom in China is embedded in a much broader vision of life that does not focus primarily on the expression of the individual. It sees the limits of individual freedom and its overvaluation, which leads to destruction.
China has focused primarily on economic freedom in recent years and has been able to lift 800 million people out of poverty and dramatically increase the prosperity of its population. Compared to the West, this is a great success. In Western countries, everything is going down the drain, with more poverty and less freedom at all levels.
This could lead to the question that we, the Europeans, are perhaps not as clever as we think and should perhaps hold back a little when it comes to explaining to others what freedom is.
Footnote:
[¹]: Julian Assange is an Australian editor, publisher, and political activist and founder of WikiLeaks. He was imprisoned from 2012 to 2024 and tortured in a British prison on the orders of the US government for exposing US war crimes.
[²]: Edward Snowden, an American CIA operative who exposed the US government’s global surveillance programs that violate all kinds of constitutional rights in pretty much every country in the world.
[³]: Guantanamo, a US naval base in Cuba. People are detained and tortured there by the US government without any legal basis. This inhumane facility began its work in early 2002 and at its peak had 780 prisoners who were tortured in the most cruel way without a court order. Even today, in 2024, there are still 30 prisoners locked up.
[⁴]: Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total value of all manufactured goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a given period and is usually calculated on an annual or quarterly basis.
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